16 Comments

Every week your audience can never tell which way the history of the neighbourhood will go. Fantastic, I will be forlorn when you get to the end and are "complete".

Expand full comment
author

I can never tell either! If I ever make it to the end, I'll just start over again since everything will have changed. Thanks Irv!

Expand full comment
Nov 14Liked by Rob Stephenson

I think you experienced the Willy Wonka boat ride IRL and I’m incredibly jealous.

Expand full comment
author

It was truly magical, though if I had pulled an Augustus Gloop I would probably be in the ICU right now.

Expand full comment
Nov 14Liked by Rob Stephenson

Nopenopenopenope. I could barely ready about you going into that pipe. It made me physically ill. Ugh. Claustrophobia is alive and well here.

Expand full comment
author

haha! (your opening neologism is like an E.E. Cummings poem on claustrophobia).

Most people were definitely NOT prepared for what happened. I'm more agoraphobic than claustrophobic, but I found the closeness of this particular environment rather intense.

Expand full comment

Kaufman Astoria Studios was first established in the late 1920s by Paramount Pictures as a sort of adjunct studio complex to their Hollywood grounds. The Marx Brothers filmed their first two movies there while also starring on Broadway at night at the same time!

Expand full comment
author

Not to mention The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss! I need to go visit for Part II

Expand full comment

Until a recent trip into an MRI machine, I was convinced I had claustrophobia. But no! So the smelly tunnel with (beautiful) music is another, admittedly niche, slice of New York life I’d love to try. And who doesn’t love a neighbourhood with a knight appearing out of a wall?

Expand full comment
author

So you’re saying you like confined spaces where your movement is completely restricted? You would love this excursion! And for the record, the essential oils were surprisingly the only odor I detected. Nary a whiff of raw sewage!

Expand full comment
Nov 15Liked by Rob Stephenson

What haunting eerie music, perfect for your journey on the River Styx! Thanks for doing this for us as I am too faint hearted to go rafting in the dark through a sewer pipe! I actually liked the melodious instrumental part of the music, although the other parts were very . . . experimental.

Thank you again for a very well-written, entertaining, humorous piece. Thanks also for the picture of the End sign at the end.

Expand full comment
author

Well had I known what I was getting into from the onset I may very well have turned it down myself! The recording doesn’t really convey the actual sound which was stunning. thanks Raquel!

Expand full comment

"a more ambitious Astoria outing, you could visit the city’s oldest surviving beer garden, The Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden, followed by a trip to the Jim Henson exhibit at the American Museum of the Moving Image"

I mean... It's not like these are prohibitively far apart, we are New Yorkers after all, but these two locations aren't exactly adjacent.

Anyway I'm happy to report one of these photos is my corner, but won't be saying which. Thx for the footnote shout out, hope you actually visited the church and street (part 2 maybe?)

Expand full comment
author

Well I did say more ambitious..A 30 minute walk or ten minute bike road is nothing after a couple of Pilsners.

I passed the church but did not photograph it. This is why I needed to spread Astoria out!

I have a hunch I know which corner you live on, but your secret is safe.

Expand full comment

Hell Gate really deserved its name, a thousand ships - impressive. “we began to move not towards the river but backward, into a large sewer pipe”….I might have laughed out loud in anticipation and wonder about wth was going on. Kudus to you for being so calm LOL. Thanks for the Drain Brammage audio - I loved listening to it in the warmth of my office chair and a coffee in hand, while imagining all of you cramped on the rafter. Thank you also for sharing Chris Payne’s photos of the Steinway Factory- amazing.

Expand full comment
author

Who said I was calm??!

Expand full comment